{"id":11593,"date":"2016-08-17T01:29:27","date_gmt":"2016-08-17T06:29:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/in-the-potters-hands\/"},"modified":"2016-08-17T01:29:27","modified_gmt":"2016-08-17T06:29:27","slug":"in-the-potters-hands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/in-the-potters-hands\/","title":{"rendered":"IN THE POTTER\u2019S HANDS"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:center;line-height:normal'><b>JEREMIAH 18<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:center;line-height:normal'><i>\u201cO house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?\u201d declares the Lord. \u201cLike clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:center;line-height:normal'><i>(Jeremiah 18:6).<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: 18.0pt;line-height:normal'>God told Jeremiah to visit a potter (Jeremiah 18). The potter was working with a wheel which was turned by a pedal operated by his foot. He threw his clay into the center of the wheel, but perhaps he did not get the clay precisely centered, because as he tried to work with the clay, it became lopsided. The potter had to smash it down and start over. Then, he shaped the clay into a pot pleasing to him.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: 18.0pt;line-height:normal'>God told Jeremiah that He was the potter and Israel was the clay. If God announced destruction to a nation and it repented, God would spare it. On the other hand, if God announced blessings to a nation and it forsook Him, God would destroy it. The message was clear: Though God had not yet chosen any Gentile nation, He might well turn to the Gentiles if they repented. By the same token, though He had originally chosen Israel, He would surely destroy her if she continued on her wicked paths. Moreover, through Jeremiah God had been announcing destruction for Israel; but if Israel repented, God would relent. The clay was His, and He could shape it any way He chose.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: 18.0pt;line-height:normal'>The people responded to Jeremiah\u2019s message by mounting a campaign of defamation against him (18:18). They started spreading lies about his character and behavior in order to discredit him. It was clear that they were rejecting God\u2019s offer of peace.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: 18.0pt;line-height:normal'>In response God told Jeremiah to return to the potter and buy a nice pot (Jeremiah 19). Jeremiah was to take it out to the place where broken pots were thrown and hurl it into the heap, shattering it. Under God\u2019s direction Jeremiah informed the people that this was God\u2019s intention for them.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: 18.0pt;line-height:normal'>How did the people react? Pashhur, who was \u201cchief officer\u201d among the priests of the temple, had friendless Jeremiah beaten and put in stocks, not only brutally wounding him but also exposing him to public ridicule (Jeremiah 20). When Pashhur had Jeremiah released the next day, Jeremiah told him that God had given Pashhur a new name: \u201cTerror on Every Side.\u201d In the future, disaster would surround this man, and he would find out what it was like to have no friends, being hated by everybody.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;   text-align:center;line-height:normal'><b>CORAM DEO<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;   text-align:center;line-height:normal'>Ezekiel 22\u201323<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;   text-align:center;line-height:normal'>James 2<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:   18.0pt;line-height:normal'>The book of Jeremiah shows the prophet giving   Israel one opportunity after another to repent, just as Moses gave Pharaoh   many chances to change his mind. God still deals with us that way today.   While He is longsuffering, God\u2019s patience is limited. Is there something you   need to change\u2014before it\u2019s too late?<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:   normal'><i>For   further study: Exodus 34:6 \u2022 Nehemiah 9:29\u201333 \u2022 2 Timothy 1:15\u201317<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:center;line-height:normal'>thursday<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:center;line-height:normal'>november<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>JEREMIAH 18 \u201cO house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?\u201d declares the Lord. \u201cLike clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel\u201d (Jeremiah 18:6). God told Jeremiah to visit a potter (Jeremiah 18). The potter was working with a wheel &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/in-the-potters-hands\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;IN THE POTTER\u2019S HANDS&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11593\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}